April 26, 2018 Xinhua News Agency
Xinhua News Agency, Shanghai April, 26 (Reporter Huang Anqi) On the World Intellectual Property Day, the reporter visited Shanghai Intellectual Property Court to see how technical investigators participate in the intellectual property proceedings and thereby promote the concept and atmosphere of creating, protecting and applying intellectual property right in the whole society.
According to the Interim Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues concerning the Participation of the Technical Investigators of Intellectual Property Courts in Legal Proceedings issued in December 2014, in the trial of a civil or administrative case involving a patent, a new variety of plant, an integrated circuit layout design, technical know-how, or computer software, among others, which is highly technical, an intellectual property court may assign a technical investigator to participate in the legal proceedings.
At present, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai Intellectual Property Courts have set up technical investigation divisions. Technical investigators will provide “technical translation” for judges to improve the trial quality and efficiency of cases.
On March 30, 2016, technical investigators of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court participated in the court session for the first time.
Data show that 13 technical investigators have been appointed successively by Shanghai Intellectual Property Court since its establishment. Technical Investigation Division accepted a total of 124 technical investigation cases, completed 591 technical consultations, evidence preservation, on-site inspections, etc., and issued 36 technical examination opinions since the commencement of their work.
Technical investigators may be engineers, doctoral advisors, researchers or experts in certain field. Chen Li, a technical investigator from the Patent Office of the State Intellectual Property Office, accepted six cases that required technical investigation in the first month of her exchange in Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, which were difficult for a professional like her.
In an invention patent infringement case involving printers, Chen Li found in the paper that patent claims, instructions and drawings added up to more than 240 pages. “Through what we have learned, we can sort out and analyze the technical facts for judges and provide professional advice, thereby saving their time in hearing cases.” Chen Li said.
Chen Li, with 15 years’ experience in patent examination, spent a week reading more than 240 pages of patent documents, clarifying their logical relationships, and told the responsible judges key points after studying them most of the day.
“In some cases, although the patent specification is short, but the actual content is very complicated. The difference lies in ‘a little bit more’ professional content. It is hard to distinguish whether it is a common distinction or whether the products are essentially different. At this point, there is a special need for professional and technical personnel to provide professional analysis and help.” Chen Li said.
Guo Yinlong, a technical investigator who is a doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, China Academy of Sciences, recently participated in the evidence preservation in an intellectual property case involving coal chemicals in Liaocheng, Shandong Province.
“I was worried because the case didn’t involve chemistry merely. Though as a technical investigator, I don’t know everything because of the limitation of my profession.” However, in order to complete the task, Guo Yinlong began to study all the patent documents in this case.
“I can understand all the chemical knowledge with my own professional background, so I just take a little more time to learn other disciplines.” For three or four days, he studied the case while learning, which even included design discipline, and eventually summed up all the key issues in the case.
As one of the first technical investigators appointed by Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, Guo Yinlong has been facing “difficult miscellaneous problems” all the time, which test not only his professional ability, but also his comprehensive strength.
“I realized that being a technical investigator doesn’t just mean we provide technical support. We have learned a lot from it, and it’s very meaningful.” Guo Yinlong sighed sincerely.
Some technical investigators have to travel between two cities out of their love for this job. Liu Fang, who lives in Beijing and works for the Internet Intellectual Property Committee of China Intellectual Property Society, has to travel between Beijing and Shanghai to participate in the technical investigation activities of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court.
“I love this job and I want to do more work even though I has to travel between these two places. I’m on call whenever needed.” Liu Fang promised.
“In fact, people engaged in technical research have an instinctive respect for technology, and they also respect innovation. So, they’re willing to do technical investigations.” Li Fang said that being a 100% perfect technical investigator requires 80% clear technical knowledge and 20% understanding of legal rules, so that she can issue technical opinions independently and assist judges in ascertaining technical facts as an objective and impartial technical assistant.
On July 5, 2017, technical investigators and other technical experts preserved the software involved in a computer software copyright dispute jointly.
Technical investigators can either work alone or together to solve multi-disciplinary technical issues. It’s learned that the trial period of cases for which technical investigators appeared in court is 117 days on average, 61 days shorter than that of cases subject to commissioned technical appraisal,which is 178 days on average. The trial efficiency is improved greatly.
Moreover, no case has been ordered by higher court to be remanded for a new trial or ordered for a retrial because of the technical opinions of technical investigators so far.
Li Shulan, Vice President of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, said 97% of the first-instance cases accepted by the court were technical intellectual property cases. Since the establishment of technical investigator team, technical investigators have actively participated in the court sessions, preservation and investigation of cases, and provided objective, impartial, neutral and professional technical services for judges, solving a large number of technical problems and improving the trial quality and efficiency of intellectual property cases.
